GET READY FOR PACKED SUBWAY CARS LIC

Prepping for March Madness at John Brown’s

The Mayor and the City Council reached an agreement to increase building size allowances in a number of zones in NYC, one of which is in the Court Square/Queens Plaza neighborhood. In return for this increased density, developers will set aside a portion of the new apartments for affordable housing. I’m not going to delve deep into this story as I have already done so recently here and here. The distillation of it then and now continues to be:

Upsizing real estate density in return for additional affordable housing requirements is a bad trade-off for anyone who doesn’t receive the new affordable housing. It will mean a degradation in quality of life for those already living here.

I find it laughable that both the Mayor and City Council went against the wishes of the 50 out of 59 Community Boards that voted against this proposal. Laughable but not surprising, as the Mayor has to put tangible numbers up in terms of units of affordable housing built.

In addition to those who might get these apartments, the big winners in this proposal are real estate developers, as they not only will get to build bigger, but also receive low-interest financing and tax breaks from the City, per Bloomberg News. As for the other 99%…

//Participatory Budgeting comes back to LIC. This is where you the resident get to decide, via voting, on what projects to spend a million of your tax dollars. By far the most relevant project for most people reading this is the Hunters Point South Park Playground Canopy, which will provide much needed shade on a space that is scaldingly hot in the summer.

Oh wait, despite there being 10 locations to vote, none are near Hunters Point. Contact Amanda Nasner in Jimmy Van Bramer’s office at [email protected] to find out why. Otherwise expect to be hearing all about the new Petting Zoo coming to Sunnyside and the gold-embossed crystal streetlights being installed in Queensbridge.

//Eggs here, get your eggs here – the legendary annual Trinity Grace Church Queens Easter Egg Hunt will occur on Saturday, March 26 at Gantry State Park. If you’re like me and practice your own version of Lent, whereby you consume solely Guinness from St. Paddys Day until the morning of The Hunt, then this news comes as a bit of relief – as Easter frequently falls in April. As for everyone else, you can register your child at the link below.

LIC needs more commercial in the queens plaza area, and even in parts of court square. If residents of LIC can walk to work it will reduce the load on the subway and also encourage more retail for the residents. As a court square resident for the past few years – even with some improvement in retail, it is still lacking significantly. I am one of the lucky ones where I actually do get to walk to work everyday since my office is on the sunny side/LIC border. Not having to ride the subway everyday is a huge improvement to my quality of life.

If the city wants to increase residential density in our neighborhood, they also need to create polices that address other components that define and create a great neighborhood.